Among the world vegetal and animal kingdoms, there are about two million recorded different species, certainly more than ten million different species not already recorded by biologists, perhaps up to twenty or even thirty million different species.
The species of insects make up a large majority of the existing world species. That is to say their success in imposing them among the living creatures.
The role of insects in the spread of infectious diseases have been known for centuries, but effectively controlled only during the last century. For example, even now with all the progress made in the medical field, over a quarter of a billion humans are infected by the tropical disease malaria, and more than two million die each year of it. (Other dangerous tropical diseases include inter alia yellow fever, cholera and smallpox). Malaria is a disease provoked by a parasite called "plasmodium", which is carried by anopheles (flying insects) and which enter the bloodstream of humans when the anopheles sting the humans. These and other insects are thus the vector or carrier by which several diseases are transmitted to humans.
It is a well documented fact that parasite and other bacterial and viral-based diseases are one of the main causes of death of humans in the world, particularly for injured soldiers during wars.
Even when the insects are not carrying diseases, a large number of them constitute an annoyance, the more so when they have stinging capability. The venom used by mosquitoes, e.g., to coagulate the blood of stung animals and humans after the desired volume of blood has been sucked in, has localised itching properties which may last for days. It is also recognized that several tens of humans die each year from the venom of bee stings, especially since the so-called African Bee strain has invaded the wild in the Americas in 1956 following a major scientific error in their handling at a Brazilian entomological research compound.
It is thus paramount to control the spread of insects about human settlements. Among the known insect-controlling means, there exists electrical panels which electrocute incoming winged insects (such as mosquitoes) lured by an ultra-violet radiation source. Two of the problems associated with such a device are that they make a "zapping" noise each time an insect is electrocuted, an annoyance thus a sound pollution, and that it increases the electricity bill of the user.
Diatoma are granular materials, whose granulometry usually varies between about 0.005 to 0.015 inch. The insect-killing properties of diatoma are known by operators of shipping lines, where e.g. bulk grain cereals are mixed with diatoma to prevent insects from spreading thereinto. Indeed, diatoma, not being toxic to humans, can be readily eaten with the cereals. The sharp, microscopic edges of the diatoma are nevertheless highly lethal for insects who become sheared by these edges when coming in contact with the diatoma. On the other hand, since the diatoma usually cannot or will not be recuperated at the grain destination, relatively high costs are incurred because of the large quantity of lost diatoma.
It is also known to use diatoma mixed in a liquid solution to be vaporized on trees and other vegetal, in order to fight insect spreading thereon. However, a single rain will bring the diatoma down and into the ground, and thus will eliminate the advantageous features thereof on the trees.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,141,444 to Kucera, there is provided a trap for flying insects, including a rigid panel surface coated with a sticky fly catching substance on its outer surface. The sticky surface is poisonous. It is because of the sticky and poisonous features of this substance that the insect trap is effective. Eventually however, the whole board will become clogged with insects glued to the sticky substance, and thus will have become inoperative, because there will remain no residual free space on the sticky surface to be engaged by an insect.
In U.S. Pat. No. 11,276 to Thum, granular material is combined into a sheet of sticky fly-paper. The granular material is provided to keep the sheets of fly-paper spaced apart, before their use, so as to retard the flow of the sticky material (by spreading or running over the margin and onto the back of the sheets), while the paper is kept in stock in folded or rolled condition. In this patent, there is envisioned that the sprinkling of the granular material over the surface of the paper could be made after the sticky substance has been applied thereon. However, only a very small fraction of the granular material will be allowed to protrude, see FIGS. 2-3 of this patent. It is clear from careful study of this patent that these protruding sections of the granular material are not designed to shear and kill wandering insects--the killer is the sticky material per se from the fly paper.